'I won't let it end like this.'
This was the only thought that ran through my mind as I continued to stir the cauldron.
Its contents were blood red, as crimson as the sun in the seventh heaven.
"Cough! Cough!"
Blood started to drip down from the edges of my mouth, staining my white robes the same shade.
"Mo Ye(墨邪), where is Mo Yan(墨言)!"
"You traitor, if you hand him back to us we will allow you to live out what remaining lifespan you have in a cell. If not, we will kill you now!"
"Vile fiend, not only did you betray the Mo clan a millennium ago, but you dare to kidnap the clan's heir!"
...
I continued stirring, not fazed by their provocations in the slightest.
My white hair, messy with patches of crimson, swayed in the air. In this desolate space akin to the Milky Way of a galaxy, I made my last stand.
Around me was the Mo clan's elite guard, tasked to retrieve my brother.
They encircled me, breaking through the defences I spent one thousand years creating in mere hours.
But that was enough.
The red sludge within the cauldron began to bubble, like gasps of air desperately clinging to life.
I looked up at my attackers, all of them familiar faces from my past. My eyes were steady; not a hint of fear could be seen. In the face of certain death, I remained composed.
Anger raged under the stillness of the water, but now wasn't the time to act.
My lifespan was already coming to an end. This tattered body wouldn't be able to take me further. But there was hope—the mixture within the cauldron that had turned into a deep purple hue.
It was time.
I placed both of my hands onto the cauldron, one on each side. Like a fish left to dry under the sun, my wrinkled, vein-filled hands began to lose all remaining moisture, turning into a chalk-like substance.
Cracks on my palms spewed blood like lava erupting as I lifted the entire cauldron up.
My actions caused the Mo clan's coalition to recoil. Some were curious as to what I was doing, others tried to speed up their attempts at breaking the barriers, while some merely sneered at me in contempt.
On this lonely plane, I took my first step on the path to immortality.
The purple sludge crashed down onto me, swallowing my body whole. In that moment, a surge of unbearable pain coursed through me as, for the first time in a millennium, I cried.
Like a newborn baby, I wailed endlessly, bending and twisting my body in unnatural ways until I eventually slumped onto the ground, slowly becoming one with the sludge.
Skin melded together, flesh and muscles broke down into fibers, blood boiled, refining into pure essence, bones ground together, making a fine powder.
Only my consciousness remained intact through the whole ordeal, stuck living through every second of the excruciating pain.
At the same time, a ghostly silhouette slowly revealed itself to me.
A young man with clear skin was laughing maniacally, his mind far gone. His body looked similar to mine, but younger and more boisterous.
But unlike him, my mind didn't break.
I pushed forward, holding Mo Yan firmly with my consciousness while slowly absorbing him into me.
Resistance was to be expected. His soul rejected me violently, crying tears of blood as I forced myself onto him.
"Please stop... Elder brother..."
Just before I completely assimilated with him, he let out one final desperate plea, showing me memories of our childhood.
In them, we were smiling together, laughing together, playing together. But alas, they were just memories.
Gazing at the snowy peaks, I softly murmured, "Being a demon doesn't mean I don't have feelings; in fact, it is the opposite. I feel and understand everything. But the reason why we are labeled as heartless is that we don't look back. We only walk forward without regrets."
With my final goodbye said, his soul and consciousness fully became one with me.
And in that same instant, I detonated his entire being along with mine. Like a supernova birthing a star, a flash of blinding white light burst forth from my body.
"Stop what you're doing this instant!"
"Demon! Return the young master to us!"
"On guard, this is the Demon's final attack!"
"If fate allows it and I shall be reborn..." I said as emotions surged, "I will surely kill you all and obtain immortality!"
In a moment, it was all over. The light dissipated into the abyss, not even leaving a corpse.
...
Calm winds blew across the village.
Summer heat pressed down upon the masses.
The mountain the village was on was filled with lush green leaves, and rainbows of petals were scattered across the land.
Somewhere in a household of a cultivator living at the edge of the village, a young boy blinked his eyes, gazing at a small hole at the top of the cellar which let the slightest amount of light in.
"I've been reborn? No, more like reincarnated." I looked at my calloused hands before observing my surroundings.
The place I was currently in was undoubtedly a cellar, but it looked more like a dungeon. Rats scurried in the darkest corners of the room, rot ate away at the wood, and a putrid smell wafted through the musty air.
Next to me was a woman—or more precisely, the corpse of a woman. Her skin clung tightly around her bones. Interestingly, both her arms, legs, and even her eyes were missing.
Crudely sawed off by an unknown object.
It was clear by the rigidity of her body that she had been dead for at least a week, most likely due to dehydration and malnutrition.
And seeing that I was in no better condition, I quickly pieced together the truth.
After her death, the previous owner of this body devoured her flesh and drank her blood to survive.
But after a while, the blood dried up, and the already scarce flesh ran out, leading to his death too.
I wasn't sure how reincarnation worked, but for now at least, I wasn't going to die right away.
'Given the state of my body, I'd give myself a day at most.' My thoughts lingered as I continued to inspect my new body.
A few moments later, a weary sigh escaped my mouth as I discovered two huge problems with my body.
Firstly, I was born without a spiritual root. This meant that not only could I not cultivate, my status was akin to trash on the street.
But this could be subverted by building a blood root, which I was planning to do anyway.
The main problem was the second. The body I currently inhabited was cursed.
I could tell the moment I tried expanding my consciousness. The curse placed on me was no small one. In fact, I had only seen a curse this potent once during my entire ten-millennium lifetime.
My spiritual eye was blocked.
This meant I couldn't perceive anything spiritual-related, like ghosts, wraiths, or vengeful spirits. But the thing that troubled me the most was that I also couldn't see curses or spells used by other cultivators.
'As I thought, tampering with the natural order of fate is sure to draw a reaction from the Nine Heavens.' Despite this, my temperament didn't change one bit.
Instead, I slowly rose to my feet, my entire body trembling at this simple movement.
Without knowing who I was being held captive by or when I would be released, the most important thing right now was to survive.
To do that, I needed food, and to obtain food was to hunt.
My cold gaze tracked the flickering shadows that darted around. When one drew near, I pounced, catching the rat and immediately biting into its head.
Savage and brutal, the rat died a gruesome death, squirming within my mouth as I shoved the rest of it in, its bones producing crunching sounds each time I bit down.
Like the candies I had in my youth, blood burst forth from the rat's organs, coating every part of my mouth with metallic iron.
Once every last bit of it entered my stomach, I sat down in a lotus position, my legs crossed and hands gently placed upon one another.
The rat's blood inside me began to boil, signalling the start of the refinement.
'This won't do. I need at least the blood of a hundred adults to fully refine the blood root.' The contribution the rat's blood supplied was minimal in effect, even after three hours of refinement.
It was then that the silent cellar echoed with a rhythmic, heavy thud that slowly grew louder and louder.
"Have you two learned your lesson, LaJi?" A clicking sound reverberated as the door to the cellar swung open, revealing a slightly fat man with a receding hairline, carrying himself with the demeanor of a king.
I knew it then—I was going to enjoy killing him.